JAN GERBER IN CONVERSATION WITH LAWRENCE LIANG AND SEBASTIAN LÜTGERT

SALT BEYOĞLU

OCTOBER 10, 2015 14.00

Due to tragic events in Ankara, this conversation program has been cancelled.

Bomb-damaged library of Holland House, London, 1940

SALT Beyoğlu, Walk-in Cinema

The Political Future of Shadow Libraries: “In Soviet Russia, You Read Books”

Contemporary debates about the future of the library have been stuck between nostalgic laments for the past of the library or euphoric declaration of the actualisation of the universal library in its digital avatar. In his talk, Lawrence Liang will examine the political and ontological stakes of what it means when everyone is potentially a librarian.

As a response, Sebastian Lütgert will offer a guided tour through the dystopian futures of the Internet, in which a medium once heralded as the universal digital library will reveal itself as the most pervasive technology of control ever invented. His presentation will feature Michel Foucault, Mark Zuckerberg, the proverbial Syrian refugee, and a number of artificial intelligence pioneers who are currently making “social media” accessible to the US government.

The talk will be in English.

This event is recognized with the support of Koza Visual Culture and Arts Association.

Lawrence Liang is a lawyer who moonlights as a pirated media scholar. He is currently a guest lecturer at the Volkswagen Media Studies department at the University of Lüneburg.

Sebastian Lütgert is an artist, programmer and writer. He is the co-founder of Bootlab and Pirate Cinema Berlin, and editor of the 2 x 50 Years of German Internet anthology.

Jan Gerber is a video artist, video activist and video codec developer. He is a long-time contributor to the Linux operating system, the Pad.ma video archive platform, and the Oil of the 21st Century media library.